The present invention is concerned with a nonimaging concentrator for light. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a solar energy concentrator or collector having an absorber disposed within a glass housing and a reflector asymmetrically disposed in the housing enabling improved nonimaging light concentration, such as an evacuated cylindrical reflector tube. This absorber geometry can also include a gap loss reduction V groove which can be positioned in an asymmetric manner relative to a wedge shaped heat conductor fin coupled to the absorber.
Nonimaging concentrators and their advantages are well known in the art (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,957,031; 4,002,499; 4,003,638; 4,230,095; 4,387,961; 4,359,265; and 5,289,356 incorporated by reference herein). In these previous methodologies, the device is constructed using a given absorber shape, usually a cylindrical tube, and then the appropriate nonimaging reflector is designed. This emphasis was therefore primarily on developing new reflector designs to optimize collector efficiency. There has recently been made available new types of high performance absorber materials which can be disposed on flexible substrates. These absorbers have an absorbance typically greater than 90% over the solar spectrum, while the hemispherical emittance at operating temperatures is quite low.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved nonimaging solar collector and method of use thereof.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel nonimaging solar collector having an absorber concentrically disposed within a glass housing and an asymmetrically disposal reflector enabling improved nonimaging light concentration.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved nonimaging solar collector having an outer housing and a concentrically disposed tubular absorber with an asymmetrically disposed wedge shaped heat conduction fin.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a novel nonimaging solar collector having a heat conduction fin disposed asymmetrically relative to a reflector.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel nonimaging solar collector having a cylindrical reflector and tubular absorber coupled to a conically shaped cross sectional heat conductor disposed between zero and Pi relative to a reflector.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an improved solar collector having an absorber concentrically disposed within a reflector and coupled conical cross section heat conductor which can be positioned over a range of angles to optimize efficiency.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a solar collector utilizing a variety of reflectors asymmetrically disposed relative to a symmetry line of the concentrator.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and article of manufacture for providing high solar collector efficiency with a heat exchange channel design having a V groove asymmetrically positioned relative to a reflector surface.